party dish Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

$Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip$

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on July 15, 2012

$Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip$
This Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip is seriously amazing, I mean make 3 times in the same week kind of amazing. When we served this dip at our family lunch over Fourth of July, it was gone within minutes of coming out of the oven. My mom made more of the pimiento cheese dip the next day because we had enjoyed it so much the day before. Then, I made a half batch when I got home to take more photographs of the dip since I didn’t get one of the dip baked at the party. The pimiento cheese dip is easy to pull together and can be made ahead of time.
$Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip with Tortilla Chips$

Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip

Ingredients

½ cup Greek Yogurt (0% Fat)
6 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened
¾ cup roasted red pepper, diced
2 small or 1 large jalapeño peppers, ribbed, seeded and minced
2-3 scallions, chopped
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro, plus 1 tablespoon
8 oz. of shredded pepper jack cheese
8 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper, to your liking

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a medium bowl combine Greek yogurt, cream cheese, roasted red peppers, scallions, ¼ cup cilantro, shredded cheddar, shredded pepper jack, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
In a 2-quart oven-proof casserole dish spread the dip out evenly.
Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is bubbly and dip it hot.
Top with remaining 1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro and serve with tortilla chips
To make ahead of time-Do steps 2-3 and put plastic wrap over it and place in the fridge.

Source– Slightly adapted from Annie’s Eats

$Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip Close-up$

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on March 29, 2011

I’m usually not one to make recipes off the sides of boxes and cans (besides the occasional batch of Chex Mix), but I was looking at the back of a Whole Foods cracker box the other day and found one that looked really good. I had all the ingredients already so I decided to make it as an appetizer for dinner last night. Here is the recipe from the box (slightly modified):

Warm Goat Cheese Dip

Ingredients:
-1 tsp garlic, pressed
-1 package goat cheese
-2 sprigs fresh rosemary
-1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
-kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread garlic on the bottom of a 5×9 casserole dish (I used the all-clad oval baker). Crumble cheese over garlic. Place rosemary sprigs between cheese and side of dish, following the curve of the dish. Press cheese down with the back of a spoon. Top with the olive oil, salt, and pepper (to taste). Bake for 10 minutes, until bubbling.

They recommend serving it with the woven whole wheat crackers (the box it was printed on). I had some leftover pitas and had finished the crackers the night before, so I toasted the pitas up. This would be a great dish to serve or bring to a party as it can be made beforehand and only takes 10 minutes to heat up.

-m

Posted by Meaghan Barry on August 21, 2010

The day before we left for our 10 day vacation in Nantucket, Husband M had his 30th birthday. Since we were pretty busy packing and tying up loose ends before we left, we were only able to have a small celebration. I made one of his favorite easy summer recipes…Martha Stewart Everyday’s Grilled Steak with tomatoes and scallions and a brownie from the farmer’s market. His Aunt T had thrown him a big birthday party in Maine the weekend prior and I also had plans for a lobster bake while we in Nantucket. His work also threw him a afternoon party with freshly baked cookies, so all in all, he had 4 birthday parties this year.

For the Nantucket lobster bake, we ordered pre-cooked lobsters and steamers from Sayle’s fish market. Our little cottage did not have air-conditiong and the day of the party happened to the hottest day we were in Nantucket. Thank goodness we bought pre-cooked lobsters…I can’t imagine how much hotter the place would have been if I had been cooking lobsters for hours. They did a great job packing them and they stayed warm for quite awhile.

For a starter, I decided to make a batch of clam chowder. We were having 10 people over in all and this recipe I put together made well over this amount (if served as an appetizer). I used Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything No-Holds-Barred Clam Chowder recipe as the base and tweaked it based on a few other recipes I have made in the past.

Nantucket Birthday Clam Chowder

Serves 10+ as an appetizer

Ingredients:
-1/2 pound applewood smoked bacon (or similar high quality), chopped
-2 cups minced onions
-5 cups peeled and chopped baking potatoe
-4 tablespoons flour (I used wheat)
-2 teaspoons dried thyme
-7 five-ounce cans of clams
-4 eight-ounce bottles of clam juice
-S&P
-2 cups milk
-2 cups heavy cream
-2 tablespoons butter
-fresh chopped parsley
-oyster crackers

Directions:
Fry the bacon in a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove the bacon with a with slotted spoon and put aside. Cook the onion and potatoes in the bacon fat until the onion softens and is translucent (10-15 minutes). While they are cooking, drain the canned clams and reserve the drained clam juice. Add the flour and thyme to the onion and potatoes, and combine. Add the 4 bottles of clam juice and the reserved clam juice from the cans. Cook until the potatoes are tender (an additional 10-15 minutes). At this point, I turned off the heat and put the lid on the pot to keep it warm until the guests arrived.

About 5 minutes before I was ready to serve the chowder, I added the salt, pepper, milk, and cream (put the milk and cream out for about 20-30 minutes to get to room temperature so it does not curdle when you add it). Add the drained clams and bring to a low simmer. Add the butter on top of the chowder- the clams will be finished cooking once the butter melts. I served the chowder with the chopped parsley and oyster crackers on the side.

-m

Posted by Meaghan Barry on February 23, 2010

For the Super Bowl, I also made Guacamole (as did our Mom…I guess it’s a family trend). Sister K has a very good recipe that she has made for me before (for recipe, click here.) I was searching around for a new variation and I found this one by Alton Brown on the Food Network website.

Ingredients
-3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
-1 lime, juiced (I was out of limes and half a lemon worked just fine in this recipe)
-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 medium onion, diced (I prefer red onion for this recipe)
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (omit if serving for a crowd…a lot of people do not like cilantro)
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

A good trick I learned somewhere is to stick the avocado pits into the guacamole while it is sitting out. Remove them before serving. In addition to the lime/lemon juice, this prevents the guacamole from browning.

-Sister M